In this case it looks like he has taken care to make the car easy to revert to Ford/Ford if desired, and the results are quite impressive !!
I am curious as to whether for the same amount of $'s that 5.0 could not have had a similar HP level, but again, this is certainly a unique car, and
85 Coupe 5.0 deserves Kudos for his efforts !!
My .02, anyhoo.
Britt
Thanks! Well, the real deciding factor on the Ford/Ford was the $. The motor, is a COMPLETELY stock 5.3L longblock, with a Corvette cam (more ideal characteristics for boost) and dual valve springs to prevent float at high boost. It's well documented the stock LS longblocks will handle upwards of 800 fly HP and laugh at you. There was recently an article in HotRod Magazine where they intentionally tried to blow one up on the dyno with twin ebay turbo's at 22 psi. They did not succeed and made several 1200HP pulls, and that was with a 4.8L which is actually the more well suited in the LS family for boost:
Stock GM LS Engine - Big Bang Theory - Hot Rod Magazine
The 5.3L like I have installed in this car go for $500 complete with wiring harness/computer and accessories. The total powertrain package was probably around 4K start to finish. That's 4k for around 750 flywheel HP. Also, now that the car is LS powered, you can swap up to a 5.7/6.0/6.2 by merely changing the motor out and a few small mods. All the LS family shares the same external bolt patterns and dimensions.
Don't get me wrong, you can hit the same RWHP numbers with this exact same turbo on a 5.0 as well, i've seen it done. But it usually requires good breathing heads and cam, which adds quite a chunk to the cost. Then, you have to deal with the production block splitting issue above 500 fly HP:
Many well documented writeups about that, including the above pic, here:
The Turbo Forums.com
So by the time you buy an aftermarket block, heads, cam, rods and pistons while you are in there you've far exceeded what you could have done the LS swap for. Put the same mods into the LS and you'd be close to 900 fly hp...
It's just the $/HP, thats the ONLY reason plain and simple
But, I believe with the introduction of the new 5.0L the market will swing back eventually for Ford. Working at at dealership I get to drive a lot of them before most, and the new 5.0's and EcoBoost's have it indeed. GOOD power all stock, and there are a lot of guys that are getting good numbers out of them already with little work. In a few years when they fall more into my price range, I could see myself owning one possibly.